HBO Announces Premier of ‘Our Towns’ Documentary
HBO’S Our Towns, a panoramic yet intimate look at small towns throughout America, debuts April 13, 2021 on HBO and HBO MAX.
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Recommended by ‘What to Watch’
What to Watch’s Phil Nickinson recommended ‘Our Towns’ the HBO documentary, writing, “The film provides an expansive perspective on America that finds unexpected connections between personal stories, community actions, and the…
How Libraries Are Leading the Way to Digital Equity
This is a report about how that drama is playing out in one sizable American city, and what its lessons indicate for the country as a whole.
Recommended by Fodor’s Travel
In the Fodor’s Travel March 18, 2021 list of 15 top travel memoirs, Danielle Bauter recommends Our Towns. She writes, “Combining their journalistic experience–James is a national correspondent for The Atlantic and Deborah is a linguist and…
Announced as Featured Speaker at Bellingham City Club
The Bellingham City Club has announced James Fallows as the featured speaker for their March 24, 2021 meeting. The virtual event, titled “Moving Forward with a Divided Electorate” will run…
When a Company Invests in an ‘Underdog City’
The story of how a company that started in one of these places is now involving people and businesses in another—and why that matters in the next stage of equitable American recovery.
Learning From the New Deal—For the Next Recovery
I was talking with the mayor of a "red state" city about how his community was weathering today's public-health and financial crises.
How Michael Jones Changed Our Daily Lives
"Everyone is an inventor; you need only ignore limits and preconceptions then ask yourself 'how should it be?' "
Referenced in PennLive Patriot-News
In his December 11, 2020 opinion article, prospective mayoral candidate Dave Schankweiler references Our Towns and the traits identified of successful towns, for which he sees parallels in Harrisburg. Pennsylvania’s capital, he exhorts,…
What Post-pandemic Repair Could Look Like
An update, following a report last month, on plans to repair the damage now being done.
Why Some Libraries Are Eliminating Fines
Are fines consistent with a fundamental mission of libraries: to serve the public with information and knowledge? And to address that mission equitably across the diverse population of rich and poor library users?
How to Reconnect Rural and Urban America
Some recent items worth noticing
Referenced in WGBH News
In his November 11, 2020 commentary, Boston PBS media platform GBH’s Dan Kennedy references Jim Fallows’s now four year old prescription for overcoming the anger and divisiveness that had given rise to Donald Trump’s…
Featured in The Tullahoma News
In her November 9, 2020 editorial, Shelley Smith of the The Tullahoma News reflects on Jim and Deb Fallows’s No. 1 sign that communities, large or small, are working well: divisive national politics…
Featured in the Pensacola News Journal
In his October 31, 2020 op-ed in the Pensacola News Journal, Studer Community Institue founder Quint Studer discusses the need for communities to step up, especially during difficult times. He reports on a…
What Happens After the Election
What else is going on in the country, with less than two weeks in this consequential election season?